The Meaning Of Symbols
by ThrogmortenMimic
Summary: What is Sophia thinking about? What is this mysterious Symbol? What happens when Albel interferes? Who is the mysterious voice in the dust cloud? How could anything survive a brutal attack from Albel? Chapter 2 now up, finally...
1. Unexpected Symbols

**A/N: **Yes… I should be working on Holiday, but I just had to write this! Its set while the group is in Peterny, training for end game.

**Disclaimer: **I (sadly) do not own Star Ocean or any of the characters, places, or anything else related to it! But I do own everything to do with any of the OC's this story contains!

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**The Meaning of Symbols**

**Chapter 1: Unexpected Symbols**

Albel had been watching Sophia. Usually he watched everyone, he didn't really trust any of them that much. Of course he still watched everyone, but Sophia warranted extra attention because she had been acting a little different lately… She was detached, something weighed on her mind, heavily. Albel was leaning in a doorway unobserved by his target and thinking, _"I guess I'm sort of… Curious, no. Not that, intrigued, no not that either… More like… Paranoid… Yea… This could be dangerous to me… With those symbological powers and all… I've got an idea…"_ After satisfyingly convincing himself, he abandoned his watch post and went off into the crowd that is Peterny.

Sophia had left the Inn in the early morning only to sit at a Café table in the middle of the square and think about her new theory, with some reference material on hand. The queen had given her permission to borrow whatever symbological books she liked. _"A new type of symbol… It would work if… I used my… Connection… Gene… I hate that thing! But… If I could make it do what I want… Aim it at the right place, or at least right direction…" _Sophia thought about this for a long time. After many drinks of lemonade, many pages read and many hours of deliberation she had not made any more progress just thinking and decided to experiment the next day. She paid for her drinks and took a short walk around the town to stretch her legs before returning to the inn, it was getting dark after all. The rest of the crew had arrived back from the Sanmite Steppes after another day training, and were just about to start dinner, so she joined in to try and get her mind off topic.

Albel had returned to the Inn just in time for dinner to be served, which he took, and ate, with no thanks given. But that was just Albel, everyone knew that. What they didn't know was that while they had been training, and Sophia was thinking, Albel had visited every skilled smith he could find in the whole of Peterny and the surrounding area and made some… _improvements _to his claw. _"I have a lot of lost training time to make up for… And I want to practice with these new improvements before we have to kill the next powerful maggot or that Sophia wench does anything…" _Albel smirked at the assembled table before heading upstairs and leaving his plate for someone else to take care of.

"Did he seem… A little more… Arrogant just now, to you guys?" Fayt asked the group. The worry was clearly displayed on the boys face and in his voice.

"Don't worry bout it!" Cliff reassured him jovially, and patted Fayt on the back; "Albel was just being himself, probably thinks he's done something _extra _special today…" Cliff had no idea how close he was to the truth.

"Seriously Fayt, you do worry too much…" Added Maria, an evident look of concern for the most concerned member of the group showing in her eyes. She really did like him, and most of the group had their suspicions about her feelings for Fayt.

"I suppose your right… Well, we've got more training to do tomorrow. Are you going to come with us Sophia?" Fayt questioned, he knew she needed more training. She was very good with her symbological skills, but everyone else still kept improving.

"Wha…? Uh, um, no. I still have some things to do in town, but I might come train in the afternoon, ok?" Sophia replied after being awoken from her thoughts. _"I hope I can make this symbol work by then…"_

"Well… Ok. But I'm getting an early night, you all should too. Especially you Cliff, no tavern for you tonight, you delayed us so much this morning…" Fayt told the group as he headed upstairs. Cliff just grinned sheepishly and busied himself with clearing the table to avoid further mention.

0o0o0o0

The next morning Sophia breakfasted with the others then lounged around till she was sure they would be a fair ways from the western gate of Peterny. When she decided it would be safe for her to go without being seen, she headed out. Unbeknownst to her, Albel was watching from a rooftop opposite the Inn. He knew how to spy, a war will teach you these things and people rarely look up, therefore Sophia was oblivious to his presence yet again. _"Why is she leaving town? If it was for training, she would've gone with those other maggots… I'd better check this out…" _

Albel waited a bit before following, but when he reached the west gate, she was nowhere to be seen. _"Bah, which way has that damn maggot gone?" _Albel looked for a clue until he saw a dead bird ahead and it was charred badly. _"That wench must have gone this way… I'll find out what she's up to…" _Albel set of in that direction, looking for more corpses that were victims of Sophia's powerful symbology.

A short while, and a few freshly mutilated corpses, later, Albel heard muttering from the other side of a bunch of boulders and snuck on top of them to peer at the scene below. There was a _huge_ symbological circle drawn in the grass and Sophia was muttering to herself while adding touches here and there. Albel was shocked, not only had he not known about Sophia's immense knowledge about the science of symbology, he had no idea what such a large symbol could possibly do. Albel promptly skidded down the boulder to confront Sophia, as she had already started chanting and it was beginning to glow.

"What is this thing wench!" Albel yelled at Sophia. Sophia was startled by the sudden interruption and stopped chanting in shock.

"Albel! What are you doing here? Get out of the circle!" Sophia yelled at him, before either could do anything more, a vortex sprang up within the diameter of the circle, it wasn't strong, but it did draw their attention. It was quite loud too, Sophia had to yell at Albel, "Albel you idiot! You broke my chant, I didn't even have time to aim this!"

"What? Aim it? Is this some kind of weapon, you fool?" Albel yelled back above the rising wind. The wind never gave Sophia a chance to reply, the air began to glow and the vortex twisted in different directions before locking its tip in the general direction of Peterny. A loud ringing sound that was sort of like a chime was briefly heard then the vortex vanished leaving behind a barren circle in the field of grass. No symbol. No Sophia. No Albel.

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**A/N: **Curious as to what just happened? Well, it was short, but I didn't want to give too much away in the first chapter. If you've been intrigued, review this! The rating may go up later, not quite sure what will happen. But there will be two OC's in the next chapter! What relation do they have to Sophia's circle? Review and find out! 


	2. Offensive Symbols

**A/N: **I said I wasn't going to be working on Holiday until I got 5 decent reviews. And I had a writing buzz and thought it was about damn time this fic had an update, in the form of a very action packed chapter.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Star Ocean we would have: SOIII-2 out by now, so take a guess. And I own my modifications to the OC's in this fic, names/personality/appearance/age/voice/etc. But they are based from characters from somewhere else. I will further disclaim at the end of chapter.

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**The Meaning of Symbols**

**Chapter 2: Offensive Symbols**

Albel was coughing furiously. He had suddenly found himself in the middle of a huge dust cloud with a lot of grass floating around inside it. He could vaguely make out a shape near him, which he supposed was Sophia, _"What has this wench done this time? I can hardly see!" _He decided to make his frustration apparent, "What have you done?" He yelled angrily.

"Hey! I have no idea why we're in the middle of this cloud! I'll bet it's your fault, you must've messed up!" An equally angry sounding voice returned from somewhere in the cloud.

This confused Albel, and he reacted before he really thought about it, "Hey, the little worm drew the symbol, I don't know what's going on!" He didn't know who was yelling at him, but he wasn't going to tolerate it, especially as it wasn't his fault.

"How dare you call me a LITTLE WORM? I'll kill you if I find you in this cloud, brother or not!" Retorted the voice, it sounded extremely furious, yet the deep voice didn't scare Albel. He wondered what the voice was talking about, but his thoughts were cut short.

'Clap'.

Following that clap a wind sprang up thus dissipating the cloud as the grass began to settle on the ground. Albel quickly scanned his surroundings; Sophia was getting unsteadily to her feet and still attempting to dislodge dust from her throat, which looked rather unpleasant to say the least. The second thing he noticed was that they were standing in what appeared to be a mountainous clearing, similar to the Mountains of Barr, yet the soil was rather more clay-like and a bit more reddish in appearance. The third thing he noticed was…

'Hey… You're not even my brother! You've got a lot of guts calling me a little worm. I'll make you regret that you bastard!" Yelled a young man on the opposite side of the clearing.

Albel noticed he looked very important; he wore highly polished black army boots, white gloves with a black pair of dress pants and an expensive looking blue coat. The coat was embroidered with gold and black in simple, yet elegant style. What struck Albel the most were his features, he appeared to be rather young for his deep voice, or maybe he was a little on the short side, but he had very long unbound white hair with a high parting fringe at the front, his hair fanned out and then ran along the sides of his face. His golden eyes looked at Albel, and they appeared to be very pissed off.

But Albel wasn't concerned with the short guy; there was a very tall and powerful looking knight standing next to him. This guy was over seven feet tall; Albel had never seen anyone so tall in his life. His armour looked rather fearsome, the metal was a highly polished dark, dark grey, and the helmet had a rather determined look. Yet this knight did not move a muscle, he simply stayed standing still and Albel began to wonder if anyone was inside the suit… The eyeholes of the suit appeared to be looking at Albel, but he dismissed it as he felt his confidence return. He had been surprised by these two, but he could take them. _"They're both unarmed! And even if there is someone in that suit, he is bound to be slow encased in all that metal… I just have to see the angles of this… This fight will be a cinch."_

"I don't think there is any reason to fight them brother." Came a smooth, deep and dangerous sounding voice from the knight. Albel was taken aback, not by the words, or the tone, but by the fact that the lips on the face of the armour moved…

"_That's impossible! Unless… It must be a robot from Greeton! Well, that makes it dangerous, but it's still slow…" _Albel began to recover from this latest surprise; he was about to speak again when Sophia interrupted him.

"We don't need… To fight, we're truly… Sorry… for anything we've done… Wrong…" She managed to choke out; she had ingested a fair amount of dust after all.

But Albel wasn't quite in the peace-making mood, "The girl may not help me, but I'm more than enough for you two maggots to handle!" He spat as he charged the two strangers. To his further consternation the knight leapt forward with inhuman agility, sending the loose grass flying, and grabbed his claw in his hand, thus blocking that blow. Albel wasted no time in bringing his sword to bear and thrusting towards his enemy's stomach, yet the knight swiftly intercepted that too.

"Albel don't! I don't want to fight them!" Wailed Sophia in the background, yet Albel wasn't exactly going to give up, and she knew it. She sighed exasperatedly and began charging her symbological powers.

"I don't think you have a choice!" Retorted the short man as he clapped and then raised his hand up and held his palm flat above the ground; the earth began to rise up from amongst the grass into a single shaft aimed towards the young man's hand, he swiftly grasped it and spun it like a pole, Sophia noticed that in fact he now held an ornate metal staff with small blades attached to each end. _"He could do some serious damage with that…" _She thought absentmindedly as he came charging towards her with a vicious gleam in his eye, he was also fast like his brother.

The two engaged in a flurry of swirling grass and Sophia managed to block his strikes with her own staff for a short while, but it was apparent that he was overpowering her, until she screamed, "Lightning Blast!" The electrical discharge surprised the short man as he got in close; he took most of the blow with his staff, yet it shattered from the impact. He lay on the ground a fair distance back and gaped at Sophia and Albel in astonishment.

Meanwhile, Albel had been grappling at close quarters with the knight. _"I can't believe this! He is blocking every one of my attacks, without retaliation, is he some sort of pacifist or something?" _Albel had had enough. He back flipped away from the knight, kicking his helmet and pushing him further away as he did so, then after landing a sadistic grin appeared on his face as he raised his claw up and held the palm facing the momentarily stunned knight. It was time to use his trump card, _"It's ironic that I had prepared this because of that wench…" _He thought as he repeated the words that the smith had told him, "Blizzard!" He said as one of the new symbols on the back of his claw began to glow blue before a vortex of wind surrounded the knight. The grass was whipped up into the miniature storm, serving to further disorientate the huge man, and the air temperature began to drop and the knight was assaulted by freezing wind and frozen grass from all sides. Albel briefly watched as he was tossed around inside his own personal snowstorm until he once again shouted, "Earthquake!" This time a different symbol glowed a deep blood red colour before the ground underneath the knight buckled and erupted outward, tossing him to the ground.

"Help brother!" The knight implored to the white-haired youth, but at that moment his brother was hurtling backwards through the air after Sophia's sudden attack. Albel had now rushed forward and drove his Crimson Scourge through the chest of the knight and solidly into the ground. The knight gasped in astonishment and Albel released his sword and aimed his palm at the torso of the knight, "Palm of Destruction!" He said triumphantly with a sense of finality in his voice. The explosion briefly blinded Albel as the knight went flying backwards, and grass went everywhere, unfortunately the knight was now a fair distance away with his sword its torso.

"You forgot about me!" Came the voice form behind Albel as the forgotten opponent struck him from behind. It was no soft blow either and it sent Albel flying forward. After clumsily stumbling a bit he regained his balance and turned on the second target. He raced forth and slashed forward with his claw, yet he felt the sensation of being grabbed and thrown by his claw instead of slicing through an arm as he had expected. He crashed into a pile of rocks and emerged as fast as he could whilst brushing loose grass off of himself; he located his newest opponent standing simply with his right arm held outward defensively. He saw light reflecting off the cotton glove of that arm and it was then he realized he had underestimated this enemy too. There was a slice in the fabric, and the sunlight glinted on what lay beneath.

"You have a metal arm also! Hidden under that cotton glove, am I correct?" Queried Albel, _"The more I learn about him, the easier it will be to kill him…" _Albel assumed a nonchalant pose and put his good arm on his hip while his claw hung at his side.

"Wrong. It's actually a silk glove…" He replied far too casually for Albel's tastes. Albel was not impressed with his laid-back attitude. Something wasn't right here…

"How can you be so calm? Your brother is lying in a crushed heap over there, don't you care? He's dead!" Sobbed Sophia hysterically; she wasn't taking this too well. Albel gave her a disapproving look, but she either didn't notice or didn't care.

"What are you talking about? He's fine. Aren't ya Senubi?" Called the white-haired man. Albel and Sophia looked over towards the crumpled heap of metal that had looked so fierce only moments before. They rendered practically speechless when an arm was raised and waved back, the green foliage floating around from the movement only added to the surreal effect.

"I'll be okay. Can you fix me sometime soon Davorien? I hate being wrecked…" The voice smoothly replied. Albel couldn't believe it. Nobody could be inside that suit alive, this so called Senubi had been frozen, shaken around till the armour was mangled, stabbed through the chest with the Crimson Scourge no less, blown practically to pieces and now lay in a disjoined, disfigured and barely humanoid shape trapped inside a steel coffin with that cursed blade standing up from his chest. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't.

"Sure bro, in a sec. I'll just deal to these guys," He then redirected his attention back to Albel and Sophia, "Look, I know what you're both doing. She altered the electrical properties of atoms in the air and then discharged them towards me. While you altered the temperature of the air particles and simply whipped them into a blizzard, then changed the structure of the ground and finally you destabilized the elements around your hand before unleashing them with explosive force against my brother, Senubi. It's simple science… But, I'm not quite sure where all this grass came from…" He explained rather simply, yet to Albel's ears he made no sense, while Sophia did go to high school and could gather the gist of his explanation…

"Science? But there is nobody that studies the science of Symbological Genetics on that level… anymore…" She said, her voice finally breaking as she remembered uncle Robert.

"Symbo-what?" The man called Davorien queried Sophia. Yet Albel couldn't be bothered with all this meaningless talk. He made a dash for his sword, which was still embedded in the knight's torso, yet the earth slid out from under him, leaving him in a shallow depression, and rose up into a wall in front of him. He attempted a jump and side step yet further earth subsided from beneath him and added to the now curved wall until he found himself at the bottom of a hole. "Hey, I'm guessing you wana start something again?" Called a deep voice that sounded a lot like Davorien, which turned out to be true as the he appeared at top of the hole.

"I'm not trapped here forever you fool, I can get out you know!" Retorted Albel from the bottom of the pit. He ran towards the wall with the attention of climbing out, from the corner of his eye he saw Davorien clap and place his hands on the ground. Grass flooded in like water as the pit wall began to retreat from Albel rapidly till it was like he was standing in an arena. He stopped and looked up. Davorien was now standing on an even higher top of the pit and he looked down and behind himself.

"Wow, I'm actually quite high up here… Hey girl! She's not as far below me as you, but she won't do much down there." He said simply, the smug amusement in his voice was evident.

"_So he's created a walled arena… I'm below ground level, in a virtual sea of grass… But, how far? I need a plan… I don't want to be toyed with…" _Albel was thinking rapidly and opted for taunting his foe, "So what now? Leave me here? Shoot at the fish in a barrel? Not an honourable man I see…" Albel attempted to tease him and make him loose his cool. It was not meant to be.

A maniacal grin that Albel would have been proud to wear appeared on his face and golden eyes locked with the crimson eyes of the now swords less swordsman. "You insult me and trash my brother. I'm going to deal to you… severely…" He uttered menacingly as he clapped his left hand to his right forearm. Sparks flew from his arm as a blade slid out from under his sleeve and over his glove, the blade was long, and curved evilly. It was serrated down one side and was shaped with hooks and notches down the other side. It almost looked ceremonial it was that ornately and weirdly shaped, yet Albel knew, it was razor sharp and would inflict much pain if it made contact with him. Without pause his foe leapt gracefully down into the pit of grass, despite the sheer drop.

"You can't be serious…" Albel muttered under his breath as Davorien charged forth. Albel dodged the first slash and caught his blade arm with his claw. His opponent attempted a punch with his normal hand but Albel blocked and restrained that too. Before Davorien had a chance to try anything else Albel had caught his claw in the white-haired man's coat and spun it in such a way as to make him trip up and collapse into a heap. Albel leapt backwards and began to focus his mind, "Earthquake!" He yelled as the ground began to shake.

"Oh no… Not going to happen to me…" Was the response from the blue heap on the floor as he slammed his hands to the ground, the earth began to shake more vigorously, yet it didn't give way. The whole arena was shaking until, without warning, the floor beneath both men virtually exploded outwards flinging them both to the sides of the arena, in huge clouds of grass, like toys. Unfortunately for Albel, Davorien was already racing across the arena towards him by the time he had managed to stand up.

"_I'm not prepared, I need a more time!" _Albel thought frantically as the blue blur raced closer towards him, and suddenly stumbled then collapsed into the green sea on the ground. The offending object bounced forward and stuck solid in the ground at Albel's feet. The Crimson Scourge. If there was ever a time to believe it had a mind of it's own, it was now. After a blind throw by Sophia from outside of the arena, it had struck Davorien in the back of the head and then landed in the ground at Albel's feet. "Looks like your out matched now maggot…" Spat Albel, his voiced laced with anger and contempt. He stalked though the foliage towards the fallen man, ready to make the final blow on a fleshy chest this time.

"You really don't know who your dealing with do you?" Came the voice from underneath the white hair. Although his face was mostly obscured, he seemed to be grinning. Before Albel could answer a wall rose in front of him and then toppled towards him, but the distraction had served its purpose Davorien was up once again and the two charged at each other. Blades ricocheting of one another, claws slashing, fists punching and kicks flying in a green tornado. The two were evenly matched and they proceeded to fight until they could not stand.

"_Grrr… What is going on in there? I need to see…" _Though Sophia as she frantically ran around the outside of the wall trying to find a way up. Then it occurred to her, she may not be as articulate as this Davorien guy, but she could sculpt earth too! She focused as hard as she could and then yelled, "Earth Glaive!" Spikes of earth shot out from the ground before her and they weren't perfect, but they were step like enough to enable her to run up to the top of the wall. After the time it had taken her to figure it out and she was up above the battlefield she wished that she wasn't. The two were both excellently matched at offence, yet they both lacked good defensive skill… Both men were bleeding from numerous small wounds, had grass stuck all over them, and they were thoroughly tired. "Stop it!" She screamed at them. Both warriors glanced sideways at her before calling a mutual, yet temporary, ceasefire. They both backed away till they were at the arena walls. Albel couldn't help but take advantage of the distance.

"Deep FREEZE!" He yelled so vehemently he went hoarse; in an instant reaction Davorien clapped and dropped his hands to the ground. The air around Davorien began to plummet in temperature while earth around Albel began to shake as the wall collapsed on top of him, thus pinning him to the ground. His sword arm and his head were still free however, and he began to struggle violently until a large rock tumbled down and hit Albel in the head, his head consequently hit the floor and his arm went limp. Meanwhile Davorien braced himself for a blizzard like attack, yet he was surprised when the air suddenly froze around him and stranded him in a block of grass-flecked ice, with only his head, left shoulder and left arm free. He struggled, but to no avail, he was stuck fast. But unlike Albel he was still conscious.

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**Disclaimer: **I own nothing to do with Star Ocean or Full Metal Alchemist. (If you hadn't figured out who they were based on, you know now…)

**A/N: **Finally, I got this done! It's long (for me) to make up for the amount of time i have ignored it. I was inspired to write this fic after seeing how Alchemy and Symbology had many similarities. Yet differences. And I am glad I've got past this chapter… I will try to keep this based in the action genre… I tend to lean on romance though. So I'll notify if it goes there.


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